


Run

by XantunsiaRiveresiana



Series: Xantunsia Riveresiana Chronicles [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Desert Island, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Gen, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Origin Story, Original Character-centric, Seventh Umbral Calamity, Short, Stranded, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23627863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XantunsiaRiveresiana/pseuds/XantunsiaRiveresiana
Summary: After 6 years of surviving an island of hellish monsters, A young Xantunsia runs towards freedom, but what is she truly running away from?
Series: Xantunsia Riveresiana Chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700809





	Run

It was a simple plan. ‘Lead the beast to the coast. Out in the open, other beasts may see us and fight over the food. That will give us the chance to hide.’ A simple plan, but certainly not a good one. The way the beasts were acting recently, we had no way of predicting how they’d react to anything. We didn’t even know if there would be any others by the coastline. Truthfully though, the plan wasn’t even important, it was just a goal to run to. It was the running that was important. Running had never failed us all these years, we just had to keep running. Run like we always had. 

Me and Leader were in the front. The other 3 slightly behind us. Speed was the first thing you built up here, but we had been here the longest, the new ones weren’t quite as fast. What did I think about that? Did I want to save them? Or was I happy they’d die first? I don’t remember. Honestly, I’m not sure I had time to really think about it. “Just keep running, never stop running” That’s all I could do. Maybe that's why it happened the way it did. A giant tree, toppled by one of the deranged beasts running about, fell right in front of us. It was all we could do to stop before getting crushed. The 3 that had fallen behind had more time, they reflexively leaped over the tree to some semblance of safety. We braked to a complete stop to avoid the tree. We stopped running.

At the same moment that I felt my momentum halt, I felt a grip tighten around my shirt. It was Leader’s, and I knew all to well why it had happened. I was slower. The second he realized he was in danger, he chose the most effective way of survival, throwing me to the beast. That’s Leader for you, he had reacted so quickly I hadn’t even had time to consider doing the same yet. “You live for the clan, and the clan lives for you” That's what Leader always said. Many members of the tribe had died over the years, and their deaths had allowed me to live. It’s only fair that eventually, it would be my turn, to die so another may live. Every time Leader spoke that phrase, I was reminded of that, so I was always ready for to be thrown away like this. And yet, I hadn’t been thrown. 

It should have only taken a moment, yet after a couple, I still hadn’t been thrown. In the next moment I looked to see what had happened, right into Leader’s eyes. I knew these eyes well, but at the same time, I hadn’t expected them. Were these the eyes I’d seen use the injured as bait so many times, or push the slow to their deaths in desperate situations? No, these looked more like the eyes that told me I had to keep up my strength as they passed me my food servings or that looked at me and communicated a plan of escape with a nod. But, In the first place, why did I think leader has more than one set of eyes? I didn’t understand, how could I? It had nothing to do with running. All I knew is that these eyes hadn’t killed me yet, just that they still very well might, so I ran from them.

I push myself away from Leaders grip. And right after saw the claw of the pursuing beast slam down on him. The blow back sliced through the Giant Tree behind us. I could see the younger 3 a bit in the distance through the new gash. The event must have caused them to turn around, and the unexpected scene must have caused them to stop running. Anyone who knew Leader would have expected the outcome of being stuck in a deadly situation with him to end in the exact opposite of how it had. Yet there I was, unharmed, behind our Leader with a clearly fatal wound from his shoulder down through his torso. The whole time, his eyes never left mine. But, were they truly his eyes? The eyes I’d looked at all these years? I was unsure before, but now they looked completely foreign. I’d never seen them the way they were at that moment. Accompanied by a smile. 

“I’ll hold it off.” That’s what he said, somehow still standing, as he turned around. The familiar reassuring voice blew away my confusion. It was Leader, I knew that now, but that didn’t answer why everything had just happened the way it did. “I stopped running, I was slower, I deserved to die so why am I-” my rapid thoughts were interrupted by that reassuring voice once more. “Xantunisa. I always told you, ‘You live for the clan, and the clan lives for you.’ It took me too long to understand my own words, but I know you’ll understand them some day.”

What did that mean? Why did he say that? I didn’t know, I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t know what to say. So I didn’t say anything. I just did what I knew I could do. I ran. I ran from those words, from the crunching and snapping sounds of a feasting beast behind me. Those all too familiar sounds.Yet this time, they hurt. Just hearing them caused a deep pain, a sad pain. Sad? Why was I sad? I didn’t know. I ran from that thought. I ran. I ran to those three and kept running. We all ran, ran together, from everything, to something, we kept running.


End file.
